[Video] Empowering students: Finding a family far from China

Members of the Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars (FACSS) at the University of Texas at Dallas discuss the ways they come together as a family to overcome the difficulties they face as international students.

Flywire has a unique understanding of the challenges that come with being an international student—in many ways, we were born to solve those challenges. In 2008, Iker Marcaide was an international student from Spain who was preparing to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). When he had to send his international tuition payment to the university, he found that the entire process lacked transparency. His payment couldn’t be tracked, so he had to just wait and hope that it would be delivered before the deadline, if it was delivered at all. That payment was also subject to fees and fluctuating exchange rates, which could affect the total amount that would be actually delivered. Confident that he could create a better process, Iker founded peerTransfer, the company that would later become Flywire.

Today, Flywire empowers opportunities globally and locally with convenient, secure, and reliable transactions, but solving a basic challenge for international students is at the core of our business. That’s why we support the work that FACSS and every Chinese Students and Scholars Association does. By creating this short film, we hope to demonstrate our support for international student organizations and their members.